The evolution of the strike causes an evolution in the self-perceptions of the Africans themselves, one that is most noticeable in the women of Bamako, Thies, and Dakar. These women go from seemingly standing behind the men in their lives, to walking alongside them and eventually marching ahead of them. When the men are able to work the jobs that the train factory provides them, the women are responsible for running the markets, preparing the food, and rearing the children. But the onset of the strike gives the role of bread-winner-or perhaps more precisely bread scavenger-to the women. Women go from supporting the strike to participating in the strike. Eventually it is the women that march on foot, over four days from Thies to Dakar. Many of the men originally oppose this women's march, but it is precisely this show of determination from those that the French had dismissed as "concubines" that makes clear the strikers' relentlessness. The women's march causes the French to understand the nature of the willpower that they are facing, and shortly after the French agree to the demands of the strikers.
Perhaps no female character better captures transformation of the African female than Penda. Penda is first introduced as an unmarried women who breaks custom by having "periodic escapades" with men (Ousmane 137). But the experience of the strike turns what once was anger and stubborn independence to dedication and selfless communalism. Her strength of spirit leads the union officials to seek her out to be in charge of the line distributing rations to the striking families. Penda's firmness of purpose proves surprising and implacable to those that try to use her reputation for promiscuity against her. Penda goes so far as to publicly slap a man who chooses to pat her behind (Ousmane 142).
It is Penda who gives voice to the women's desire to march to Dakar to support the strike. It is also Penda who shifts between cheerleader and drill instructor in order to keep the women walking and together during the journey. The novel itself draws its name in part from Penda's method of keeping the march together. The local tradition holds that the practice of counting adults and children directly brings misfortune and possibly death. Instead of counting people, the people of the region count God's bits of wood. Penda willfully violates this tradition an...
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... make themselves a part of the decision making processes in their communities. The strike begins the awakening process, enabling the women to see themselves as active participants in their own lives and persons of influence in their society.
The traditional roles for African women are clearly portrayed --especially through Niakoro and Assitan. But things are changing: "The women became conscious that a change was coming for them, as well" (33). This is made clear through characters like Ramatoulaye, N'Deye, and Penda--and in the end, all of the women who march on Dakar. The French regard the differences between Africans and Europeans as cultural, as well as racial, as a matter of superior and inferio. Giving in to striker demands, e.g. would be "a ratification of the customs of inferior beings" (181). The Africans, on the other hand, switch the terms to class: "You do not represent a nation or a people here, but simply a class. We represent another class, whose interests are not the same as yours" (182). Think about the way these 'conditions' (categories) interact in the novel--how they are tied together in the conflicts and changes Sembene portrays
The center of discussion and analysis about the sex/gender system focus on the differences between African, European and Creole Women. The sex/gender system describe by Morgan focus on their production, body and kinship. European women are seen as domestic, African women’s work overlaps between agricultural and pastoral. They’ll work in the field non-stop, even after giving birth. African women hold knowledge about the pastoral and agricultural work “in the planting and cultivation of fields the daily task of a good Negro Woman” (145). While Creole women were subordinated, with the job of produce and reproduce. When it came to body, European women’s bodies were seeing as fragile. After birth the rest for a while before they could stand back again or return to their activities “European observers believed the post-delivery period of abstinence lasted three months, and others commented up two- to three year period o...
We must also understand the exclusion of gender from revolutionary discourses as being part of patriarchy that is not challenged in certain revolutions. The exclusion of gender equality from what Lumumba struggled for is where there is a certain patriarchy, and this kind of patriarchy is evident in almost all revolutionary anti-colonial writing.
In order to understand the criticisms of Baruch Spinoza’s beliefs, we look at his work “Ethics; Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect; and Selected Letters” translated by Samuel Shirley and edited by Seymour Feldman. This work by Spinoza is broken down in five parts. The first part talks about god. The first part has eight definitions of which the ‘geometric’ proof for Spinoza’s system is based on. Spinoza keeps on going and expostulates that all events are determined and based on fixed laws. Anything that is of Nature (god), must obey these laws.
...ir rights and to gain equality in the world. If the women in the world do not work together to produce something they all desire then it will not work. They bring about a few small changes but not enough to create a more equal society and a happy environment for everyone to live in. ‘Only within the interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate’ (Lorde, 1984: 367) all women are different and therefore they all have different experiences, thus working together, listening to each other taking into consideration the views and ideas of all these different women, they can become strong enough to dismantle the masters tools and to produce equality something that all of these women. They all want equality so they should work together to gain the more there are the higher the chances of success.
Sembene Ousmane’s novel, “Gods Bits of Wood,” gives a highly detailed story of the railway strike of 1947-48 in French West Africa. It contains conflicts of political, emotional and moral nature. Ultimately, Sembene’s novel is one of empowerment. It brings to light the tension between colonial officials and the African community among the railway men as well as the struggle of the African community to free itself from being subjected to colonial power. Frederick Cooper’s article, “Our Strike: Equality, Anticolonial politics and the 1947-48 Railway Strike in French West Africa,” helps reveal the strike’s true meaning and agenda by analyzing the conflicts present in Sembene’s novel. In fact, it paints a very different picture of the railway strike than Sembene’s novel.
This essay hopes to define Spinoza’s reasoning behind his ‘Deus sive Natura’, arguing that God and Nature, or the universe, are but one substance. This separation is distinct to Spinoza’s substance monism, and argued through a geometric essay structure that allows reasoning to be accessible, as well as logical should the reasoning at each step have validity.
Alissa Rosenbaum (Ayn Rand) was born February 2, 1905 is St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the oldest of three sisters and her father, Zinovy Rosenbaum was a successful pharmacist and businessman who owned his own pharmacy, Ayn and her family lived a wealthy life. Early in life, Ayn found school to be unchallenging and found refuge in writing screenplays at the age of six and novels at the age of eight. At a young age Ayn also took to politics as she supported republican ideas. In 1917, at the age of 12 she witnessed first hand the initial shots of the Russian Revolution from her balcony. It was overnight that her family was suppressed to poverty as communist thugs confiscated her father’s pharmacy. This disrupted the comfortable life that her family enjoyed and she and her family were forced to flea St. Petersburg’s to Crimean Peninsula, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Civil War. While she attended high school she became an atheist, as she valued reason above anything else because the revolution and the fact that she and her family was suppressed as individuals. The fact that she witnessed this brutal civil war shaped her beliefs as she realized that the government was taking away her right to think and be an individual.
For centuries, educated and talented women were restricted to household and motherhood. It was only after a century of dissatisfaction and turmoil that women got access to freedom and equality. In the early 1960’s, women of diverse backgrounds dedicated tremendous efforts to the political movements of the country, which includes the Civil Rights movement, anti-poverty, Black power and many others (Hayden & King, 1965). The Africa...
In the 20th and 21st centuries, women have earned and been granted with many rights that place a backbone in many corporations, businesses, households, and most importantly society today. If Desiree’ was a citizen in today’s society, she would not have to first be ashamed to have a baby of African descent or take anything from her husband if she did not want to. The background knowledge presented in this paper allows you to gain an image of what times were like for women in the 19th century and why Armand would have to be a different man with a different mindset in order to be accepted in today’s society.
As the strike progresses, the French management decides to "starve out" the striking workers by cutting off local access to water and applying pressure on local merchants to prevent those shop owners from selling food on credit to the striking families. The men who once acted as providers for their family, now rely on their wives to scrape together enough food in order to feed the families. The new, more obvious reliance on women as providers begins to embolden the women. Since the women now suffer along with their striking husbands, the wives soon see themselves as active strikers as The strategy of the French managers, or toubabs as the African workers call them, of using lack of food and water to pressure the strikers back to work, instead crystallizes for wor...
The novel God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane is an account of the strike Senegalese trainworkers underwent in pursuit of equal benefits and compensation from their French employers. In an effort to coerce the workers into returning to their jobs, the French cut off the water and food supply to the three villages wherein these events transpire: Thies, Dakar, and Bamako. Ousmane's novel explores the way in which these hardships evolve the worker's and their families till the strike is ultimately resolved. Arguably the most significant transformation that takes place is in the role of women within these societies. Prior to the strike, the women were expected to be subservient to their husband, with exclusively domestic roles consisting of cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. As a result of the strike and the famine that accompanied it, the women were forced to alter their role to provide food for their families. The goals of the men in women differed in that the men were fighting for equality and better pay, whereas the women were fighting a battle for their own and their children's survival. So despite the fact that the declaration of strike and refusal to work until their demands were met was the campaign of the men, it was the women who ultimately forced the Frenchmen to see their resolve and succumb to their demands.
192). In this proposition, Spinoza argues that when we solely use reason, we are not guided by the fear of death. By using reason, we can contemplate life, not death. Additionally, we should strive to extend this life, and preserve
Homeschooling allows more physical freedom, less social pressures, and no busy work (Shaw). There is physical freedom because your day does not depend on school hours, homework, and classwork. Instead of children being physically exhausted, they will be well rested and have greater happiness. There are less social pressures because “they live in the real world, where lives aren’t dictated by adolescent trends. . .” (Shaw). Homeschooled children do not have to attempt to fit in; consequently, they can express their true personality. According to Shaw, “They can dress and act and think the way they want without fear.” Also, there is no busy work when students homeschool. “Hom...
Is homeschooling going to hurt your child or benefit your child? Homeschooling is debated by many parents throughout the United States. Many parents believe that they can do a better job than public schools because the can utilize the many different styles of homeschooling which may be better for their children. Homeschooling is a better option than public schooling because children can learn more about what interests them, parents are the primary influence to their children, the students are more independent, families have more free time, children learn more effectively with many options, and children get to wear their pajamas.
A feminist analysis on the other hand shows that Anowa is a woman who is struggling against the 1870’s African feminist identity (the identity of weakness). The drama surrounds the story of a young woman called Anowa who disobeys her parents by marrying Kofi Ako, a man who has a reputation for indolence and migrates with him to a far place. Childless after several years of marriage, Anowa realises that Kofi had sacrificed his manhood for wealth. Upon Anowa’s realisation, Kofi in disgrace shoots himself while Anowa too drowns herself. In a postcolonial analysis of “Anowa”, we can see some evidence of colonialism.